Sullia : For the first time in the history of Sullia Assembly constituency, ticket has been issued to a woman by the KJP.

Though there were two aspirants for the ticket, the KJP had not issued ticket to both the conteders and has decided to field Chandravathi of Bettampady.

When Sullia constituency was created in 1962, it was reserved for ST. In 1967, it was reserved as SC constituency. As many as 12 elections were held and 42 contenders have tested their luck. However, no political parties had fielded a woman candidate so far.

The decision to field Chandravathi has given rise to dissidents in the party.

Chandravathi was active member of the KJP since its inception. In the last town panchayat election, she had contested from Jayanagara ward. She had identified herself with women organisation, continual education centres.

Former MLA K Kushala and Forest department retired employee Kunhiraman were also the conteders for the KJP ticket. The denial of ticket to Kushala has led to dissidence in the party and he has decided to contest as an independent candidate.

Kushala had contested in 1985 and 1989 as a Congress candidate and won both the times. However, he lost in the Assembly elections in 1994 as well as 1999. After being denied a ticket by the Congress in 2004, he sought to contest as a JD(S) candidate, but lost the elections yet again. Recently, he had joined the KJP at Haveri convention.

Kunhiraman who had retired from forest department had tried his luck in the BJP.

However, after the BJP decided to field Angara, he joined the KJP. The KJP had asked him to submit the caste cerificate. However, when Tahsildar refused to issue a caste certificate for ‘Manne’ community, he had even complained to the Additonal DC.

The KJP High Command had directed him to send the caste certificate to Bangalore via fax before April 7. Though he had waited for a whole day in Tahsildar’s office on April 6, to avail caste certificate, he did not receive it and the KJP leaders announced the list with Chandravathi as its candidate. -DH News